Not only is Queenslander Bernard Tomic “bored” with tennis, but he may also be a big fat phony, believed to have faked an injury in the first round of Wimbledon on Tuesday to throw off his opponent, Mischa Zverev.
Guess what? Even after calling for a medical timeout mid-match, the 24-year-old still lost in straight sets – 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 – against a man he had beaten last week at the Eastbourne International in the south of England.
Tomic has been lumped with a fine for almost $20K for unsportsmanlike conduct by the Grand Slam Committee. The Committee, with Wimbledon tournament referee Andrew Jarrett, could’ve fined him up to $26K.
The fine will be subtracted from the #59 seed’s prize money of $59K for his non-effort in the tournament.
But, no, the fun does not stop here: walking-tantrum Tomic intends to appeal his fine, claiming that he is not being penalised for faking an injury, but for his controversial comments after the match.
In his post-match interview Tomic said he was not only feeling unmotivated and bored, but that he didn’t care if he made “the fourth round of the US Open, or lost the first round“.
“I felt bored.”
This turns a little bit awkward from Bernard Tomic… #wimbledon pic.twitter.com/7Mn2XEOdZd
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 4, 2017
Tomic said today:
“I was being honest.“People are saying the fine is for calling for the doctor, but it’s not.“I don’t think the fine is fair.”
On Tuesday he admitted that he called the doctor as a strategy against Zverev, having told umpire Pascal Maria that there was nothing structurally wrong with him but that he wanted medication:
“I just thought I’d try to break a bit of momentum, to use that as my strategy, because I was just playing very bad and feeling bad out there.“I tried to use something different maybe, you know, slow him down a bit on the serve. He was playing quick and we were all playing quick and he was serving well.”
Source: ABC / The Herald Sun.
Photo: David Ramos / Getty.
